


Notes on the Fashions for the Next Month

by Chocolatepot



Category: The Goblin Emperor - Katherine Addison
Genre: Clothing Porn, Fashion & Couture, Gen, Meta, Worldbuilding, fictional non-fiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-15
Updated: 2016-08-15
Packaged: 2018-08-09 00:05:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 671
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7778887
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chocolatepot/pseuds/Chocolatepot
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>On the third page of the newspaper can be found the fashion plates and associated text.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Notes on the Fashions for the Next Month

**Author's Note:**

  * For [smallbrownfrog](https://archiveofourown.org/users/smallbrownfrog/gifts).



NOTES ON THE FASHIONS FOR THE NEXT MONTH

Plate I represents a young lady prepared to go out for an evening engagement. The robe is of midnight blue silk satin, decorated with silver spangles arranged not regularly over the surface of the garment, but ebbing and flowing at intervals. The collar and cuffs are of black satin. Underneath, she wears a more fitted robe of glazed pink silk with set-in sleeves, which only shows at the neckline and wrists, except when she is walking or dancing and the hem can be seen. Midnight blue silk slippers; grey silk stockings. Her tashin sticks are ebony with interspersed onyx and pink opal beads, accented with small mother-of-pearl combs.

Plate II represents a distinguished gentleman at home. His robe of apple-green wool, embroidered with crawling caterpillars of various species, is worn loosely belted to display the fineness of his linen shirt. Loose trousers of purple taffeta, worn with purple shoes. His hair is styled simply, with plain, black-lacquered combs.

Plate III shows three fashionable hairstyles from the back. The first was seen worn by the Prince Nemeris while walking in the Duchess Pasheval garden: it consists of two buns held in place with tortoiseshell combs, with a waterfall between them. (This would be as suitable for a young lady with the addition of a few natural flowers.) The second was seen at a recent ball at the Untheileneise Court on a woman of quality. The whole is held together with five tashin sticks of cherry, heavily inlaid with mother-of-pearl; two are ornamented with amethyst beads hanging on silver chains. The third has become extremely fashionable among the young, unmarried women, who find the dangling curls over the left shoulder to be most alluring.

LETTER ON FASHION, NO. XVI

Dearest Sheveo,

Thou must not be jealous – I find thy description of country life to be charming! It would be so relaxing to be able to spend hours walking through the cultivated wilderness, and to go to bed at ten every night.

Here at the Untheileneise Court, emeralds have become all the rage due to the discovery – of which thou mayst have heard – of a new mine near the border of the Evressai Steppes. While we shall soon have had our fill of them, once too many courtiers have been seen in emeralds, I expect that the stone will have a longer vogue in the provinces, and so I encourage thee to take advantage of the lower prices while thou canst. The most fashionable thing to do has been to purchase the largest stones possible and to have them made into one ring for each hand, or to have one large stone hanging from each tashin stick, accentuated with several other much smaller ones.

There is no time for me to detail every new ensemble seen at the archduke's recent birthday celebration; instead, let me tell thee of that worn by the Empress Csoru, as it was the most lavish and striking. Her trained robe was of white velvet with a long pile, embroidered with the Drazharada's cats in silver purl and edged with a white silk fringe; the embroidered cats appeared playful rather than menacing, and most were found to have a diamond or two between their paws. Her hair was dressed in an even more magnificent fashion than usual: a tower of small buns, wrapped and intertwined with slender braids held with pearl-headed pins.

One fad which has continued for longer than I would have expected is that of wearing gloves which do not match, most notably bright yellow with apple green, dark pink with forest green, black with orange, and grey with violet. I would not recommend that thou bringst the fashion into thy neighborhood, for outside of the rarified court air gentle people will think thee a moon-wit for attempting it. However, the fad of which I wrote to you last month for glass flowers worn on tashin sticks has been found ungraceful and discontinued.

Thy sweetest and most loving cousin,

Maio

**Author's Note:**

> I immediately jumped on your fashion prompts because, as a fashion historian, I have a LOT OF INTEREST in fictional fashion as well. Unfortunately, I am no artist, so I could not provide the plates referred to in the above text.
> 
> Much inspiration was drawn from the 18th century fashion periodicals "Galerie des Modes" and "Cabinet des Modes", and the 19th century "La Belle Assemblée" and "Godey's Lady's Book".


End file.
